My name is Steve and I recently had my fuel pump and fan clutch replaced on my BMW. I noticed the car would overheat when idling and that I was having trouble starting the car on cold days. Our mechanic infofrmed me that I needed a fuel pump and a fan clutch. He made the repairs.

A few days later as I was driving home from work I lost 1/2 tank of gas. I noticed that a hose was leaking and that the car overheated again. The mechanic apologized and fixed the leaky hose and explained that there was an air bubble in a line that caused the overheating. Four days later as I was driving home my radiator split at the seam. Now the mechanic is telling me that this could be caused by a cracked head that is the result of the car overheating.

He thinks that I should be responsible for the repairs even though he had clamied to have made the necessary repairs on two separate occasions. I feel that he should be responsible for the labor side of replacing the radiator and I will pay for the parts. Am I being unreasonable in asking for the shared responsibility?

Steve

Howdy Steve,

Oh boy! My first thought is that this guy is probably not a real BMW mechanic? These vehicles are different, and if you are not experienced with them…..they will bite you, as this one did. I don’t even replace the battery in BMW anymore because of the antitheft radio can loose its memory and it takes the dealership and a special tool to retrieve the pass code if you don’t know it…..which most people don’t, but I get blamed for it.

I think you are being more than reasonable (I wish all customers were as easy to get along with in these situations) and if he really wanted to keep your business he would be more than willing to accept your offer.

I have a feeling he does not want to accept your offer because he knows he is over his head and not real sure what the actual problem is and really hopes you go away….just my thoughts. I would really like to see you get a proper diagnosis of what is going on, but you will probably have to replace the radiator first before that can happen.

You should ALWAYS replace the thermostat when replacing a radiator especially one that blew up due to extreme internal pressure….which is what I think happened here. You can probably find an aftermarket radiator in your area rather than a new one from the dealer which will be out of site price wise.

I really hope there is no internal damage to this engine or head gasket, if so it will be very costly and part of the cost should be paid by your mechanic or at least give you credit on the fan clutched you purchased.

If by chance you do have a problem with the head gasket or internal engine damage, you might want to try this over the counter additive first and see what happens.